UK’s new coal mine sent ‘adverse international signal’, campaigners say
Environmental campaigners are challenging the approval of a coking coal mine in northwest England.
WawaTay News reports Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation – a community of 1,300, 600km north of Thunder Bay, Ontario – is preparing for what may be a confrontational winter after talks on traditional land use with the Ontario government broke down last week.
KI walked away from negotiations after Ontario said they were unable to stop God’s Lake Resources, a junior gold mining company, from exploring in the area while the panel meets. The land under dispute at Sherman Lake was the site of a gold mine active from 1938 to 1941. KI claims there are numerous burial sites in the area.
God’s Lake Resources is listed on the small Canadian National Stock Exchange. The Toronto-based company recently acquired the Sherman Lake Gold Project and is now armed with $511,000 after a non-brokered private placement to explore the area. The original mine went into production in 1938 and produced 52,560 oz. of gold from 46,457 tons of ore (average grade 1.13 oz/ton) over its 4-year lifetime.
“KI is facing a repeat of the Platinex dispute and Ontario has learned nothing from the Court of Appeals decision,” said KI Chief Donny Morris after the talks broke down.
Resource Investing News has some background to the long history of clashes between mining companies, KI First Nation and government in Northern Ontario: In late 2009, Ontario had to pay $5 million to settle a lawsuit from Platinex over a failed project at Big Trout Lake. Platinex sued the province and KI First Nation because the community allegedly prevented Platinex from accessing its claims on the land.
Continue reading at Resource Investing News.
This Magazine reports activist, writer, and professor Judy Rebick has long been a fighter for social justice. Still, when she spoke at Ryerson University in Toronto on Tuesday about the struggles of KI First Nation, she muses about how she can still be surprised when the government breaks its own laws.
Continue reading at This Magazine.
